The use of fructose, present in invert sugars and honey, in the making of cookies is widely known among those with cooking and baking experience. In addition, fructose nominally is about 1.4 times as sweet as sucrose, and has therefore been incorporated in so called "dietetic" baking recipes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,336, S. B. Radlove, issued Jan. 30, 1979.
Layered cookies are well-known. For example, Oreo.TM.-type filled cookies are sandwich-structured. Similarly, fig bars involve a center-filled structure in which the center portion of the cookie is of an entirely different composition than the outer shell. These cookies differ, not only in structure, but also in flavor and appearance, from the unitary cookies of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,250,625 and 3,250,626, issued May 10, 1966 to Ray J. Thelen, describe cooked, leavened food laminates, of the type and texture characteristic of raised dough products such as breads, rolls, cakes, and the like. One of the materials laminated in the Thelen patents contains low levels of honey, while the others contain sucrose.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,198,367, issued Aug. 3, 1965, to M. C. Harris et al., describes the preparation of filled baked products and the filler composition used therein.
West German Offenlegungshrift No. 2,511,847, published Sept. 23, 1976 and assigned to Zukerfabrick Franken GMBH describes a method for preserving the freshness of bakery goods that contain sucrose and have a long shelf life. The process involves the inoculation or immersion of baked goods with or in an enzyme solution.